The Verge created a mini hype train last summer with their review of the Zero Audio Tenore ZH-DX200-CT in-ears which triggered supply issues and price hikes since they were hard to find in the US market to begin with… Fast forward to now, and these earphones are available for $44 by a marketplace seller with the order fulfilled by Amazon, so they ship from a USA facility and Prime members get free 2-day shipping. They currently average 4.3 out of 5 based on 188 customer reviews…
[DEAD] Kingmaker price drop: Zero Audio ZH-DX200-CT In-Ears for $35.50 w/free S&H [updated]
UPDATE 8/31/16 at 2:42pm ET: now the lowest is around $61, with three pages of sellers
UPDATE 8/31/16 at 12:12am ET:: lowest price currently is $51 shipped with three pages of results…
UPDATE 8/30/16 at 3:24pm ET: Prices now sky-rocketing, lowest is $82~…
UPDATE 10:46pm ET: the lowest price now at Amazon.com is $44. I suspect this price tug-of-war will continue as more Japanese Amazon sellers learn of this and rush to offer it up for sale…
UPDATE 7:24pm ET: Demand overwhelmed supply as of this time, the lowest price has skyrocketed from $35.50 to $52.57, and it went from ten pages of results to just two pages of results… The Hype Is STRONG 🙂
ORIGINAL POST
Kingmaker is a brand new term I am proposing, when a high profile website or reviewer is picking a fairly unknown or under the radar product and singing its praises or hyping it up.
We have a new Kingmaker today! Earlier in the morning, The Verge posted a very favorable hype-building post on the Zero Audio ZH-DX200-CT in-ears (“stop what you’re doing and buy these”).
The unusual thing about this is that they are a Japan product so you can’t get them from USA retailers. This sudden spike in demand apparently triggered a mini price-war among Japan-exporting/importing marketplace sellers at Amazon.com with the price currently at $35.50 with free shipping. There are ten pages of listings (!!!), and none of them is Prime eligible. Supply and demand have complications, the Economics 101 textbook examples rarely happen in the real world 🙂
If you can’t resist playing the Hype Headphone Roulette, make sure you evaluate each seller’s profile (score, total reviews, actual reviews, most recent reviews/feedback, other items they are selling, etc).
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